Welcome to another episode of Sports Are Fun!

Every week on Sports Are Fun! presented by Amazon Business, co-hosts soccer legend Kelley O'Hara, sports journalist Greydy Diaz, and JWS intern BJ serve up their hottest takes on the biggest women's sports headlines.

This week, retired NWSL great Merritt Mathias joined the Sports Are Fun! team once again. And while there was plenty of soccer and basketball talk throughout the episode, US tennis Coco Gauff and her 2025 French Open win took center stage.

"First and foremost, Coco Gauff," said O'Hara, setting the scene. "What an absolute victory for her — wins the French Open, beats Sabalenka. And she's talked about this win, how she has manifested this and the amount of mental visualization that she's put into it. youI'm curious, do you guys manifest?"

"Of course!" Mathias said with a laugh. "If you're not manifesting, what are you doing?"

"I really think we saw an incredible display of her mental toughness, her resilience, her composure, in that match," said Diaz. "And I'm just so proud of her. She's the first American since Serena Williams to win it in 10 years."

"I love the manifesting part. I love that she shares all of what she's willing to do in order to be great," added Mathias. "If you're a young girl wanting to play tennis, to see that there is so much that goes into being great other than just the practice... It's cool to do that. You should lean into that."

Alongside the French Open finalists, Sports Are Fun! also tackled the USWNT’s emerging core, Texas's Women's College World Series win, the NWSL standings, US Women taking home the grand prize at TST, and more.

'Sports Are Fun!' goes all in on the Gauff-Sabalenka rivalry

According to the Sports Are Fun! crew, the budding rivalry between Coco Gauff and Aryna Sabalenka is just what the tennis world needs.

"Before we go to our next little topic, I think we have to talk about the post-game press conference," Mathias interjected. "Sabalenka basically comes off of losing this championship match. It's well fought. But over the course of the match, she has a lot of errors — I think it was 70."

"Obviously tensions are high — she started to unravel, we all saw the spiral happen on the court," she continued. "So she goes into this postgame presser and is asked a question about the match, and she's basically like, 'I don't believe Coco Gauff played well or had an incredible game, I think I struggled and had a lot of errors.'"

"Both of those things can be true," O'Hara said. "If you didn't have a great match but Coco did have a good match, you can say both. But she was not."

"You should be gracious in defeat, right?" she continued. "And it is very difficult as an athlete at times. I've seen many people, myself included, say things post-match that I wish I could take back."

"10,000%," agreed Mathias. "But I think this is also what the tennis world always wanted Maria Sharapova and Serena Williams to be, which was never that — Maria Sharapova was never stepping even close to Serena Williams. This though? This is epic. This is like Rafael Nadal and Roger Federer on the women's side."

"Yeah," O'Hara agreed. "We now have our two athletes that are going to go head-to-head, expected to be in the finals."

"And one bit of a head case, so it makes it even better," laughed Mathias.

About 'Sports Are Fun!' with Kelley O'Hara

'Sports Are Fun!' is a show that’ll remind you why you fell in love with women's sports in the first place.

Join World Cup champ, Olympic gold medalist, and aspiring barista Kelley O'Hara as she sits down with sports journalist Greydy Diaz and a revolving cast of co-hosts and friends. Together, they're talking the biggest, funnest, and most need-to-know stories in the world of women’s sports.

From on-court drama to off-field shenanigans, to candid (and silly) chats with the most important personalities in the space, this show screams "Sports Are Fun!"

Subscribe to Just Women's Sports on YouTube to never miss an episode.

LOVB volleyball is coming back to cable, as the pro volleyball league announced a Wednesday night primetime partnership with USA Network for its 2026 season.

From January through April, USA Network will air a "Match of the Week" nearly every Wednesday evening, starting with a 2025 championship rematch between runners-up LOVB Nebraska and title-winners LOVB Austin on January 7th, 2026.

USA Network will also broadcast a portion of LOVB's 2026 postseason, including one semifinal and both games in the league's new two-match championship series.

Gearing up for its second season, LOVB features a talented player pool amid an increasingly crowded pro volleyball market.

One in every five LOVB athletes are Olympians, with 90% of the league's international players and 75% of its US players boasting national team experience.

Even more, growing demand for the sport has expansion on the horizon for the six-team league, with LOVB preparing to launch its seventh franchise in Los Angeles — backed by Angel City and Chelsea FC investor Alexis Ohanian — in 2027.

How to watch the 2026 LOVB season on USA Network

The second season of LOVB opens when inaugural champions Austin take on runners-up Nebraska at 6 PM ET on January 7th, 2026.

Live coverage will air on USA Network.

With the rookie card of Indiana Fever star Caitlin Clark still doing numbers, trading card manufacturer Panini America is debuting Caitlin Clark Chronicled this week, dropping a limited-edition release on Monday that features a 22-page collectible book and 100-card set of the WNBA standout.

The book spans images of Clark on and off the court, and includes eight four-card packs and 32 randomly inserted trading cards, as well as autographed exclusives.

"I'm excited to launch 'Caitlin Clark Chronicled' with Panini America and share some of my favorite moments on and off the court from my first two years in the WNBA," Clark said in Monday's statement. "We wanted to create something different that combined great photography with trading cards, including some special exclusives. I am proud of this collection and hope fans enjoy it."

The WNBA superstar is an exclusive Panini partner in the trading card and autographed memorabilia space, with Clark making headlines last July when her one-of-one autographed rookie card sold for more than $600,000 — setting a new world record for a women's sports card.

How to buy Panini's 'Caitlin Clark Chronicled' card set

Panini's limited edition Clark collection is currently available for purchase at Target stores and Target.com.

Tensions remain high between the WNBA and WNBPA, after The Athletic reported on Monday that the latest CBA proposal from Players Association more than doubles the league's revenue share offer — suggesting a deepening rift in negotiations.

The union outlined a deal that would give players around 30% of total WNBA and team revenue — a significant leap from the league's proposed 15% share.

According to sources, the WNBPA also suggested linking the salary cap to the previous season's total revenue, factoring in player benefits and the number of teams in the league.

The move intends to undercut an accusation from the WNBA that the players have yet to put forward an economically viable revenue sharing model.

The union's proposal begins at 29% of the prior season's total league grosses, then grows to 34% by the final year of the CBA with a one-time adjustment for the new 11-year, $2.2 billion WNBA media rights deal.

Notably, the league recently rejected a flat 33% revenue share CBA proposal, prompting this week's 1%-per-year increase system in response.

It's clear that the WNBA office and the WNBPA are at odds, but the union is showing their work as both sides strive for a CBA that will keep players on the court in 2026.

Olympic swimming icon Katie Ledecky has done it again, becoming the first woman to break the 15-minute mile with a time of 14:59.62 at her namesake Katie Ledecky Invitational in Maryland.

Smashing her own US record of 15:01.41, Sunday's sub-15 minute mile gives Ledecky the 1,650-meter freestyle's eight fastest times, with US teammate Erica Sullivan earning the ninth-best in 2019.

"This is a special one for sure," Ledecky said afterwards. "This has been a goal of mine, to break 15 minutes in the 1,650, for probably eight or nine years. So, just putting in the hard work, believing that I could do it someday, and to do it at this meet, is really special."

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Just Women’s Sports (@justwomenssports)

The 28-year-old Washington, DC, product is the most decorated women's swimmer in the history of the sport, prompting Nation's Capital Swimming — where Ledecky got her start at age six — to name their annual event in her honor earlier this year.

"I definitely was a little nervous before the race, just knowing there were a lot of eyes on me and all that," she continued. "But I knew I could just relax and have fun with it, and whatever happened, happened."

How to watch Katie Ledecky in action

Ledecky's next major competition will likely be the TYR Pro Swim Series, which kicks off in Austin on January 14th, 2026.

The domestic competition series will be covered across NBC Sports platforms.